La Calla Jewelries to make Miss Botswana crown
Cavin Kanoko | Friday March 6, 2020 16:15
The initiative was coined by La Calla Jewelries as a means to give local designers a chance to make the Miss Botswana crown.
The company designed the crown for Miss Botswana 2019.
La Calla Jewelries is a relatively new local citizen-owned and operated company that started in January 2019.
The company provides services such as jewellery design and manufacturing, watch repair and jewellery design consultancy. La Calla Jewelries manufactures high quality and reasonably priced jewellery such as wedding and engagement rings along with other jewellery pieces according clients’ needs.
Since its establishment, La Calla Jewelries has gained recognition for what it does and what it aims to achieve as the company’s vision.
It aims to afford locals with a platform to venture into the diamond value chain that will ensure Batswana get maximum benefits from the diamonds produced locally.
La Calla Jewelries founder, Caiphus Othomile told Arts & Culture in an interview that the intention is to allow local designers to capture and express the different local cultures in the designs for the crown.
He also pointed out that this year the company decided to expand the scope of the initiative and hence approached the Department of Industrial Design at the University of Botswana (UB) for a partnership.
“The department agreed to dedicate 38 students to partake in the initiative and they froze two weeks in their academic calendar to allow the students to work on their designs,” he revealed.
Othomile also said the department adopted the design project as part of the coursework and the latter have it graded as part of their assessment while also having the designs judged for the initiative.
After going through the submitted designs, the judgement process on the designs will be done at an exhibition to be held soon at the UB. The winning design will be taken up by La Calla who will then work on the manufacturing of the crown using the blueprint of the design along with the input of the designer.
Othomile also said the theme of the initiative is ‘the noble woman’ which also happens to be the name of last year’s crown and he says the intention is to have a new design every year for the crown in order to allow the winners to wear their own crown as a way to represent their uniqueness. He pointed out that the theme of the initiative is meant to reflect women elegance and also capture the women’s contribution in society. Othomile also highlighted that the partnership between Miss Botswana and SPEDU will also play a role in the design of the crown. The designers will have to capture some of the economic activities in the SPEDU region in their designs.
The designers were presented with a set of specifications to consider in their designs that include the image of a Motswana woman and the essence of the partnerships that Miss Botswana has fostered.
Othomile called for the support and also for partnerships that help with resources for them to be able to use local diamonds in making the crown. The designers will be afforded the opportunity to name their designs in order to incorporate their vision into the design as well.